Brussels, 02/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has been defending its “soft power” role when it comes to economic governance and application of the Stability and Growth Pacts at EU level for member states' budgets for 2014.
“In this new economic governance, which is a reflection of our profound interdependence in the eurozone, the role of the Commission is not to veto national budgets. That is a power we do not have,” said Euro Commissioner Olli Rehn in Paris on Tuesday 1 October in a speech to the Club de la presse euro-américain. He said: “Our role is rather to provide independent policy advice, early enough in the budgetary process for it to be useful for national parliaments.”
Rehn added: “For the first time this autumn, the Commission will publish in mid-November its assessment of the draft budget plans which all euro zone countries will send us by 15 October. We will carry out this exercise taking into account our autumn economic forecasts, which we will publish on 5 November.”
The Commissioner praised French efforts vis-à-vis the current draft finance law in France (see EUROPE 10930): “Of course, there remains much to be done, and some important details are still missing before we can make a full assessment of some of the measures that have been announced. In particular, we still need to see how the increase in employer contributions foreseen in the pension reform will be compensated, so as to ensure that the already high cost of labour does not rise further.” On Wednesday afternoon, Rehn met the French prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault. (MB/transl.fl)